Some of you may have seen this investigative report out of Arizona, but Social Security officials turned aside an Internet conference and met at a nice Arizona resort to charge their batteries at our expense.
In today's world $700,000 is probably not much, but it's a lot of money to people on fixed incomes and out of work.
So while our legislators grip and complain about private companies and their expenses, maybe it's time to begin the charity at home. I had another thought yesterday while weeding the yard: With all the people in the country out-of-work, or making major concessions on salary and benefits, isn't it time for our government to feel the pinch as well. Maybe a 10-20 percent pay cut for legislators and their staffs.
And here's an idea, any health care benefits that Congress decides that we should all have, they should be required to live under those same benefits and not the Lexus, lifetime benefits they enjoy now. Are you with me? Can I get a witness?
Here's the report on the Social Security conference (You'll have to suffer through a 15-second solar panel commercial first also notice that the time is 5:03 and the local temperature there was 111):
To be honest, I go both ways on these private and government conferences. On the one hand it's an outrage that the money is spent so frivolously in hard times, but these conferences also supply a lot of jobs for local service and hotel employees, not to mention airline companies.
Aside: Back in 1995 a group of Flint Journal employees, including me, found a writer's conference that was meeting in St. Louis. With the emphasis at the Journal on new, punchy writing, we approached management about sending a few of us to the conference to hone these techniques. The answer was that the company would pay our registration (I think about $200) for the weekend conference, but we would have to pay our own travel and lodging, which many of us did.
I think the most extravagant thing we did was ride the tram cars to the top of the arch. Also at our own expense.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Friday, July 17, 2009
Walter Cronkite, RIP
Walter Cronkite died today. One of my recollections of Walter Cronkite was the tears of relief and joy he shed the day Apollo 11 landed on the moon.
New AnnArbor.com wine blog to premier
When AnnArbor.com talked about bringing bloggers into the fold of its new (now delayed) launch, most of us assumed they were talking about experienced (well, as experienced as the new technology allows) bloggers.
The first A2 blog I've found - a wine blog - appears to be a local Ann Arbor wine expert who is apparently going to learn how to write as the site comes on line.
"It's Just Grape Juice," created in July 2009, appears to be the "wine blog" for AnnArbor.com. Clearly the author is a wine expert, but the long rambling sentences and large blocks of type don't bode well for a very readable blog.
It's hard to criticize this because this is not someone I know or have ever read before, but a good editor would have been helpful in this effort. Although my blog criticizes editors, it is not because editors are not important, but because they are crucial parts of the process. That's why good editors are so important.
To be clear, it is not my intention to run down this blog or the expertise of the writer, it is clear that he knows his stuff. My point is that he has been thrust into a position of writing about it, and despite what most people think, there is a certain amount of skill and expertise involved in written communication, just as there must be in selecting a fine wine.
A competent editor would have punched up the lead of this blog, shortened the sentences and paragraphs and tried to focus the wine column in a crisp, precise way. When there is a worry about what "new journalism" will bring, it is precisely this kind of writing most of us are talking about.
Personal pronouns become troublesome in writing and there are plenty of "I's" in the wine column. Before AnnArbor.com gives the keys to the car to these bloggers, maybe they should hold a few Journalism 101 classes.
Communication, even in the new age of technology, is going to require decent writing skills.
And one other part of this new blog raises another concern. Apparently the author of this blog is a principal in a company that owns or operates a series of restaurants. Not saying he will, but will the writer slant columns to favor or benefit his own company and who at AnnArbor.com will monitor that?
The first A2 blog I've found - a wine blog - appears to be a local Ann Arbor wine expert who is apparently going to learn how to write as the site comes on line.
"It's Just Grape Juice," created in July 2009, appears to be the "wine blog" for AnnArbor.com. Clearly the author is a wine expert, but the long rambling sentences and large blocks of type don't bode well for a very readable blog.
It's hard to criticize this because this is not someone I know or have ever read before, but a good editor would have been helpful in this effort. Although my blog criticizes editors, it is not because editors are not important, but because they are crucial parts of the process. That's why good editors are so important.
To be clear, it is not my intention to run down this blog or the expertise of the writer, it is clear that he knows his stuff. My point is that he has been thrust into a position of writing about it, and despite what most people think, there is a certain amount of skill and expertise involved in written communication, just as there must be in selecting a fine wine.
A competent editor would have punched up the lead of this blog, shortened the sentences and paragraphs and tried to focus the wine column in a crisp, precise way. When there is a worry about what "new journalism" will bring, it is precisely this kind of writing most of us are talking about.
Personal pronouns become troublesome in writing and there are plenty of "I's" in the wine column. Before AnnArbor.com gives the keys to the car to these bloggers, maybe they should hold a few Journalism 101 classes.
Communication, even in the new age of technology, is going to require decent writing skills.
And one other part of this new blog raises another concern. Apparently the author of this blog is a principal in a company that owns or operates a series of restaurants. Not saying he will, but will the writer slant columns to favor or benefit his own company and who at AnnArbor.com will monitor that?
Crain's on AnnArbor.com delay
Crain's put up a story on the last minute launch delay for AnnArbor.com.
A more positive view of AnnArbor.com
Here's a more positive view of AnnArbor.com presented by a Poynter columnist. But he also points out that the online news organization will enter a pretty crowded field in Ann Arbor.
This was written before the effort was given the yellow caution flag today and the Monday launch delayed.
This was written before the effort was given the yellow caution flag today and the Monday launch delayed.
Not so fast on AnnArbor.com
Looks like a squirrel took a bite out of the acorn.
Three months ago, AnnArbor.com announced its bold new venture. Today, it announced, not quite so fast. The big day, Monday, July 20th, has now been moved to Friday, July 24th.
This can't be good. You've been hyping this thing for months and now on the verge of the launch, you announce that the weather forecast is no good and you'll have to delay.
Probably better not launch if it was going to be a disaster, but you have to wonder what they have been doing for the past three months that leaves them unable to go. I'm blaming the captain of the ship.
Three months ago, AnnArbor.com announced its bold new venture. Today, it announced, not quite so fast. The big day, Monday, July 20th, has now been moved to Friday, July 24th.
This can't be good. You've been hyping this thing for months and now on the verge of the launch, you announce that the weather forecast is no good and you'll have to delay.
Probably better not launch if it was going to be a disaster, but you have to wonder what they have been doing for the past three months that leaves them unable to go. I'm blaming the captain of the ship.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
The stages of newspaper grief
Thanks to a reader found a new online site - Unfittimes.com - with some interesting stuff. Found this item about the stages of newspaper grief right off the bat.
You might enjoy their Declaration of Principles.
You might enjoy their Declaration of Principles.
Colorado Springs newspaper outs plagiarist
This is really sad. A journalism intern, no doubt trying to make a good first impression, draws on the best to spice up her coverage.
A few years ago the Journal caught a reporter making up sources for a series of feature stories and quietly let him resign. It never did bother to tell its readers that they had been duped. As I recall, that happened during the editorship of the current chief content leader of AnnArbor.com.
So kudos to the Colorado Springs paper for doing the right thing.
A few years ago the Journal caught a reporter making up sources for a series of feature stories and quietly let him resign. It never did bother to tell its readers that they had been duped. As I recall, that happened during the editorship of the current chief content leader of AnnArbor.com.
So kudos to the Colorado Springs paper for doing the right thing.
Latest installment from Detroitmakeithere.com on AnnArbor.com
Former FJ editor Tony Dearing defends the new AnnArbor.com model in the ongoing "new media" series at Detroitmakeithere.com.
A quote from me is also included at the end of the story:
Retired reporter Jim Smith, 61, of Lapeer, questions the wisdom of using “old newspaper people, from failed newspapers at that,” to create a new sort of journalism. Smith was a reporter and columnist at The Flint Journal from 1989 to 2007. He has followed the development of AnnArbor.com on his blog about journalism, “Free from Editors: Editors, and how bad ones are ruining the newspaper business.”
“Do you think the captain of the Valdez gets a new ship after he runs the old one aground?” he asked rhetorically, referring to the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, a devastating human-caused environmental disaster.
A quote from me is also included at the end of the story:
Retired reporter Jim Smith, 61, of Lapeer, questions the wisdom of using “old newspaper people, from failed newspapers at that,” to create a new sort of journalism. Smith was a reporter and columnist at The Flint Journal from 1989 to 2007. He has followed the development of AnnArbor.com on his blog about journalism, “Free from Editors: Editors, and how bad ones are ruining the newspaper business.”
“Do you think the captain of the Valdez gets a new ship after he runs the old one aground?” he asked rhetorically, referring to the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, a devastating human-caused environmental disaster.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
The latest from AnnArbor.com
Training for the bloggers for the new AnnArbor.com site that goes up Monday got its own post there today. Check out the hand held video interviews with two bloggers. Hint: Buy a tripod!
Also, if anyone knows how much they are paying the bloggers who will be contributing to the site, please post it here. I'm curious how much these folks will be making for their efforts.
Also, if anyone knows how much they are paying the bloggers who will be contributing to the site, please post it here. I'm curious how much these folks will be making for their efforts.
The great oracle: My initiation at the Pontiac State Police Post
In my previous post on sources, I forgot one of the funny recollections of my career at The Oakland Press.
When I started at the OP in early 1984, one of my jobs was to drive around the county checking in with various police departments every morning. One of those stops was the state police post in Pontiac.
The desk sergeant would sometimes send my up the short flight of stairs to ask two detectives if anything happened overnight. At first these were quick little visits with polite, short answers.
As the detectives (Garrison and Bower, I believe) got to know me the conversations got longer and sometimes I even left with a little news. About six months into the visits, one of the detectives glanced at the other and said, "Do you think Mr. Smith is ready to be introduced to the oracle?"
Now I was confused and ready for a joke. One of the detectives stood on a chair and looked out a high window onto the roof of the building. "The oracle says, 'yes,' " the detective said. In the days and weeks that followed the detectives would stand on a chair and consult the 'oracle' before giving me the latest news.
Finally, I asked what the heck they were looking at out the window. One of the detectives invited me to stand on the chair and look out. What was on the roof was the skeleton of one of the biggest catfish I had ever seen. Apparently thrown on the roof, it had rotted away but became the "oracle" of Telegraph Road.
Not hilarious, but perhaps the way a couple detectives dealt with their stress and a way to find a connection to a then young reporter.
When I started at the OP in early 1984, one of my jobs was to drive around the county checking in with various police departments every morning. One of those stops was the state police post in Pontiac.
The desk sergeant would sometimes send my up the short flight of stairs to ask two detectives if anything happened overnight. At first these were quick little visits with polite, short answers.
As the detectives (Garrison and Bower, I believe) got to know me the conversations got longer and sometimes I even left with a little news. About six months into the visits, one of the detectives glanced at the other and said, "Do you think Mr. Smith is ready to be introduced to the oracle?"
Now I was confused and ready for a joke. One of the detectives stood on a chair and looked out a high window onto the roof of the building. "The oracle says, 'yes,' " the detective said. In the days and weeks that followed the detectives would stand on a chair and consult the 'oracle' before giving me the latest news.
Finally, I asked what the heck they were looking at out the window. One of the detectives invited me to stand on the chair and look out. What was on the roof was the skeleton of one of the biggest catfish I had ever seen. Apparently thrown on the roof, it had rotted away but became the "oracle" of Telegraph Road.
Not hilarious, but perhaps the way a couple detectives dealt with their stress and a way to find a connection to a then young reporter.
Sources: The good, the bad and the ugly
If an old school reporter had such a thing as a tool box, in it you would find a notebook, a good pen and a Rolodex full of sources. Today, you would also have a computer, a cell phone, a camera and maybe a Flip video camera.
But of all my tools, I always valued my Rolodex files most. Over the years, I developed hundreds of solid sources. It happened through hard work, luck and a lot of patience.
A few years ago, the editors at the Flint Journal asked all members of the staff to throw their source numbers into a common Rolodex so other reporters could access them. They demanded we give up all our inside and cell phone numbers for our sources.
Fat chance. Most of the veteran reporters picked up a phone book and entered phone numbers that anyone could already look up on their own. I never even kept my best source numbers on my desk or computer. They were at home or in my car.
Give up my best tools, not on your life. One time, an intern (the same one that didn't want to bring me and a photographer coffee when we were freezing our tushes off at an armed standoff) asked me to give her an introduction to one of my prime homicide sources.
Letting down my guard just a little, I told her to call and tell the detective I asked her to help the intern. Biggest mistake of my career. What this intern did was violate the trust of the homicide detective and printed personal information on a case that was not yet public information, which got the detective in serious trouble with her chief.
When the detective called me, she was not a happy camper and asked that I step in and get a correction or clarification on how the information was obtained. The editor in charge of the intern refused and incredibly backed up a green-behind-the-ears intern who I knew had disregarded the warnings of the detective and printed information she wasn't supposed to.
All of this was my fault for giving the detective the impression that she could trust the intern. It was the first, and only time, that happened. After that I never vouched for anyone that I really didn't know. Certainly, not an intern. That one incident closed off a great source that had provided me and the newspaper with inside information on serious crimes in the city for years.
One of the things I tried not to do was become drinking buddies with my sources. First, I don't drink. Second, when you are in a bar setting, or informal setting, guards are let down and, in my situation anyway, I didn't feel it was very professional.
Only on rare occasions did I visit with sources in anything other than a professional setting. As I described to others, I am friendly with my sources, but not really friends. Now that I am out of the business, I have reconnected with some of those folks and we are now friends.
The reason for the separation was that I never wanted to be in a position where I knew some negative information about a "friend" and then had to make the uncomfortable decision how to report it.
One of the people I was friendly with was a former prosecutor in Genesee County. I was working on a case involving a drunk driver who had his case mysteriously "lost" on the prosecutor's desk. This after the drunk driver told police he was good friends with the prosecutor and that the case would never see the light of day.
Insiders gave me plenty of ammunition and through my efforts the case was revived, but in my questioning of the prosecutor he became so angry he never would return my calls after that. Especially after the critical story ran on the missing drunken driving case. Another television reporter, who had a close, social relationship with the former prosecutor, wouldn't touch the story with a 10-foot pole. That's why I tried not to get too close.
There's a give and take in the news gathering business that involves delicate negotiations and compromises, even if journalism professors like to pretend it can never happen. Especially in police coverage, there is the balance between what I want to publish and what cops want to release for publication.
My sources knew if I was writing in my notepad, they were on the way to being quoted. If they asked me to put down my pen for a minute to give me some "off-the-record" or background information they could be assured that it would not show up in print until the reason for keeping it off-the-record or background had evaporated.
I never wanted "off-the-record" information that I could never use. I wanted background information that could give context to a story and that, at some future time, could be released to the public. My job, I used to tell police officers, is to tell stories to our readers, not just know them myself.
Often through negotiations, you could get the information you needed on the record simply by explaining how you were going to present it.
One of the toughest "Off-the-record" stories I ever worked on was the 1980s case of a man who threatened to blow up Oakland County public buildings if he didn't received $60 million from the county. Operating under the name "Shiva" the man negotiated with the county through classified ads in the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press.
An Oakland County Sheriff's detective took me into his confidence because he knew that reporters from the Free Press and News were already tracking the case. Before he gave me the information he said I had to promise not to report anything until they had a chance to track down the suspect.
Before I made such a promise, I called my editor, who said if there was no other way to get the information, make the promise. The detective laid out the case, how it was progressing and kept me up-to-date on when the ads would be appearing in the classfied sections.
This went on for six months. My editor at the Oakland Press told me to stay on top of it, and that he didn't want to get beat by the Free Press or News. So every few days, I would check in with the detective to make sure I wasn't missing anything. I even called during a vacation just to make sure.
Finally, one day I called (on a Friday) and the detective said they had pretty much wrapped up the case and were ready to charge a postal worker with the terrorist extortion plot. I appealed to him to let us run the story. "Check with the prosecutor, if he doesn't care, go ahead," the detective said.
So I called the assistant prosecutor, but waited until late on Friday afternoon to hopefully keep my competition from finding out in the event the prosecutor agreed to let me publish the information.
To my surprise, the prosecutor was agreeable to letting us publish the information as long as we didn't identify by name, the suspect until he was arraigned on Monday. Then my heart sank when he said, of course I'll have to call the other reporters at the Free Press and News to let them know also.
My hope was that they wouldn't be in on a late Friday afternoon. So I worked well into the night polishing a piece I had been writing for six months for a big Sunday splash (this was back in the day when you could actually write a Sunday story on a Friday and not plan it three weeks or a month in advance).
A final read through, a final editing and the story was ready for publication on Sunday. Now, I just had to sweat out the weekend to see if the prosecutor had made contact with my counterparts at the Free Press and News. He didn't. I kind of felt bad for them, but not much.
One of the reporters put a line in their follow story the next week that said "the Oakland Press violated an agreement not to publish information on the story...." which was a crock.
That story happened because I had a good source in the sheriff's department who was looking out for me and our paper. Any reporter will tell you that source development is about relationship building and trust.
Burn a source once and you'll not get a chance to burn them again.
News organizations have gotten nervous about unnamed sources, for good reason, but sometimes sources have a lot to lose by exposing themselves and so often good news stories and tips come from inside whistleblowers who would be fired if they were found out.
To all those great sources I interacted with for 30 years. Thank you. Your secrets are forever safe with me.
But of all my tools, I always valued my Rolodex files most. Over the years, I developed hundreds of solid sources. It happened through hard work, luck and a lot of patience.
A few years ago, the editors at the Flint Journal asked all members of the staff to throw their source numbers into a common Rolodex so other reporters could access them. They demanded we give up all our inside and cell phone numbers for our sources.
Fat chance. Most of the veteran reporters picked up a phone book and entered phone numbers that anyone could already look up on their own. I never even kept my best source numbers on my desk or computer. They were at home or in my car.
Give up my best tools, not on your life. One time, an intern (the same one that didn't want to bring me and a photographer coffee when we were freezing our tushes off at an armed standoff) asked me to give her an introduction to one of my prime homicide sources.
Letting down my guard just a little, I told her to call and tell the detective I asked her to help the intern. Biggest mistake of my career. What this intern did was violate the trust of the homicide detective and printed personal information on a case that was not yet public information, which got the detective in serious trouble with her chief.
When the detective called me, she was not a happy camper and asked that I step in and get a correction or clarification on how the information was obtained. The editor in charge of the intern refused and incredibly backed up a green-behind-the-ears intern who I knew had disregarded the warnings of the detective and printed information she wasn't supposed to.
All of this was my fault for giving the detective the impression that she could trust the intern. It was the first, and only time, that happened. After that I never vouched for anyone that I really didn't know. Certainly, not an intern. That one incident closed off a great source that had provided me and the newspaper with inside information on serious crimes in the city for years.
One of the things I tried not to do was become drinking buddies with my sources. First, I don't drink. Second, when you are in a bar setting, or informal setting, guards are let down and, in my situation anyway, I didn't feel it was very professional.
Only on rare occasions did I visit with sources in anything other than a professional setting. As I described to others, I am friendly with my sources, but not really friends. Now that I am out of the business, I have reconnected with some of those folks and we are now friends.
The reason for the separation was that I never wanted to be in a position where I knew some negative information about a "friend" and then had to make the uncomfortable decision how to report it.
One of the people I was friendly with was a former prosecutor in Genesee County. I was working on a case involving a drunk driver who had his case mysteriously "lost" on the prosecutor's desk. This after the drunk driver told police he was good friends with the prosecutor and that the case would never see the light of day.
Insiders gave me plenty of ammunition and through my efforts the case was revived, but in my questioning of the prosecutor he became so angry he never would return my calls after that. Especially after the critical story ran on the missing drunken driving case. Another television reporter, who had a close, social relationship with the former prosecutor, wouldn't touch the story with a 10-foot pole. That's why I tried not to get too close.
There's a give and take in the news gathering business that involves delicate negotiations and compromises, even if journalism professors like to pretend it can never happen. Especially in police coverage, there is the balance between what I want to publish and what cops want to release for publication.
My sources knew if I was writing in my notepad, they were on the way to being quoted. If they asked me to put down my pen for a minute to give me some "off-the-record" or background information they could be assured that it would not show up in print until the reason for keeping it off-the-record or background had evaporated.
I never wanted "off-the-record" information that I could never use. I wanted background information that could give context to a story and that, at some future time, could be released to the public. My job, I used to tell police officers, is to tell stories to our readers, not just know them myself.
Often through negotiations, you could get the information you needed on the record simply by explaining how you were going to present it.
One of the toughest "Off-the-record" stories I ever worked on was the 1980s case of a man who threatened to blow up Oakland County public buildings if he didn't received $60 million from the county. Operating under the name "Shiva" the man negotiated with the county through classified ads in the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press.
An Oakland County Sheriff's detective took me into his confidence because he knew that reporters from the Free Press and News were already tracking the case. Before he gave me the information he said I had to promise not to report anything until they had a chance to track down the suspect.
Before I made such a promise, I called my editor, who said if there was no other way to get the information, make the promise. The detective laid out the case, how it was progressing and kept me up-to-date on when the ads would be appearing in the classfied sections.
This went on for six months. My editor at the Oakland Press told me to stay on top of it, and that he didn't want to get beat by the Free Press or News. So every few days, I would check in with the detective to make sure I wasn't missing anything. I even called during a vacation just to make sure.
Finally, one day I called (on a Friday) and the detective said they had pretty much wrapped up the case and were ready to charge a postal worker with the terrorist extortion plot. I appealed to him to let us run the story. "Check with the prosecutor, if he doesn't care, go ahead," the detective said.
So I called the assistant prosecutor, but waited until late on Friday afternoon to hopefully keep my competition from finding out in the event the prosecutor agreed to let me publish the information.
To my surprise, the prosecutor was agreeable to letting us publish the information as long as we didn't identify by name, the suspect until he was arraigned on Monday. Then my heart sank when he said, of course I'll have to call the other reporters at the Free Press and News to let them know also.
My hope was that they wouldn't be in on a late Friday afternoon. So I worked well into the night polishing a piece I had been writing for six months for a big Sunday splash (this was back in the day when you could actually write a Sunday story on a Friday and not plan it three weeks or a month in advance).
A final read through, a final editing and the story was ready for publication on Sunday. Now, I just had to sweat out the weekend to see if the prosecutor had made contact with my counterparts at the Free Press and News. He didn't. I kind of felt bad for them, but not much.
One of the reporters put a line in their follow story the next week that said "the Oakland Press violated an agreement not to publish information on the story...." which was a crock.
That story happened because I had a good source in the sheriff's department who was looking out for me and our paper. Any reporter will tell you that source development is about relationship building and trust.
Burn a source once and you'll not get a chance to burn them again.
News organizations have gotten nervous about unnamed sources, for good reason, but sometimes sources have a lot to lose by exposing themselves and so often good news stories and tips come from inside whistleblowers who would be fired if they were found out.
To all those great sources I interacted with for 30 years. Thank you. Your secrets are forever safe with me.
Interesting reflections over on Inside Out
For your morning reading pleasure there is a good column (post) about the changes at the Muskegon Chronicle over on Inside Out. Lots of good links to follow as well.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
What we miss: Each other
When I talk to my former newspaper colleagues we agree on the one thing we all miss. The daily interaction with each other.
Not that we all thought alike, or agreed with each other. Far from it. What is missed is the excitement of working on stories, sharing ideas, war stories and working together to produce a product that was here for a few hours and then on to the next edition.
Sort of like an intellectual disposable drink cup. There is nothing like the rush we got when we clamped onto a good story and refused to let go. Admittedly, most good reporters are adrenalin junkies. That's what makes them a lot like police officers and fire fighters.
Off blog, I've been exchanging messages with a former colleague, a photographer, about all the nasty and depressing things we witnessed in our careers. Bodies, wounds, tangled metal, mutilated lives and destroyed homes.
After nearly 18 months off the job, I have decompressed, others are in the process of decompressing. Where police officers, fire fighters and medical responders get counseling help or debriefings provided by enlightened companies, reporters who experience some of the same stress from dealing with tragedy get zip, zero, nada from their employers.
There were a few times in my career that I went to my editor (a good one, no longer employed) and told her I need a few days or weeks off from dealing with the endless string of deaths and injuries and she would take me off the death rotation. As a former police reporter herself, she got it.
Editors who rarely, if ever, dealt with the dead, dying or their families, thought nothing of asking reporters to do that very stressful and difficult work with no concern for what it was doing to their psyche. They were too busy worrying about whether desks were too messy to worry about what was going on with the mental well being of their employees.
At the same time that fewer reporters are available to do the difficult work they have to do, they are also dealing with reduced salary and benefits. A combination surely designed to increase unhealthy stress for editorial employees.
One of the things we could always fall back on was our friends in the newsroom. We could laugh together and grieve together, but with the wholesale layoffs and buyouts those support systems are largely gone.
Over the years, we exchanged tacky souvenirs from trips taken. We always looked for a cheap trinket on our trips to bring home and share with our friends in the newsroom. I still have my refrigerator magnets, Eifel Tower pencil sharpener, and miniature Roman Colisseum in my box of stuff I took off my desk during my last week. At Christmas we exchanged small gifts in groups.
During my time at the Oakland Press, I started a collection of snow globes that came, thanks to my colleagues, from all over the world. I have a box of more than 100 of them in my attic, most now without water. People loved that collection, but it eventually had to be taken home, an edict of the "clean-up-the-newsroom" crowd.
At the Flint Journal, there used to be a "ghoul pool" in which some reporters (I never participated) bet on which celebrities would die in the coming year. Sure it was ghoulish, but it was a release from the pressure and sadness we faced daily.
There were also betting pools on the Academy Awards and the NCAA Basketball Tournament. I also never participated in these, because technically they are illegal and I didn't want to be in a position where I might have to write a story about a gambling issue outside the paper while violating the same law inside it.
The annual "Bounce the Chicken Day" celebration, which included foods specifically related to chickens and eggs started when a goofy press photo of a rubber chicken being bounced up and down on a blanket made it to Page 1. Every year after that, on the same date, there would be a chicked to be found somewhere on Page 1 and a huge banquet of chicken and egg related food in the newsroom. It was great fun and it too was a release from the seriousness of what we did.
One of my favorite copy editors (although she will find that a surprise) started an annual pool and contest to pick the winner on American Idol. She made up a stage, complete with American Idol logo, and photos of the contestants on sticks that were eliminated each week with the vote.
The stage included a desk with the three famous Idol judges as well.
We looked out for each other. My buddy Kim, the one whose life I ruined by hiring him as a reporter at The State News back in 1978, asked an intern to bring me and a photographer a cup of coffee during an long running armed stand off in north Flint.
The intern, a woman, bristled at the suggestion that she should be an "errand girl" for two men just because we had been outside in below zero temperatures for more than four hours. Kim explained to her that reporters look out for each other and if he hadn't been busy on rewrite, he would have brought it to us.
In the end she didn't like it, but she dropped off our coffee. Maybe later in her career she figured out what Kim was saying. There were many times that I took coffee or relieved a reporter on a crime scene so they could get out of the cold or get a meal. It's just what we did for each other.
Heck, the bosses would cringe if they had known it at the time, but we often bought and delivered coffee to the cops and fire fighters who were stuck out in the cold with us. It was just a human thing to do. Didn't hurt when it came time to get the story either.
Once, when we had an intern that was pretty full of himself, we organized a "hat" day. The intern, thinking he looked cool, was wearing a snap brim fedora everyday like he was some character out of a 1930s "Front Page" flick.
So we all got together and agreed to wear different kinds of hats so when he arrived at the office he might get the hint. We had people wearing football and hockey helmets, every manner of ball cap, crowns, newsprint hats, stocking caps, cowboy hats (me). When he walked in the room, he noticed the array of hats, smiled and asked, "is this about me?"
We all got a good laugh from it and the young man didn't take himself quite so seriously after that. A newsroom that isn't fun, isn't really a good newsroom.
Tomorrow: A word about sources.
Not that we all thought alike, or agreed with each other. Far from it. What is missed is the excitement of working on stories, sharing ideas, war stories and working together to produce a product that was here for a few hours and then on to the next edition.
Sort of like an intellectual disposable drink cup. There is nothing like the rush we got when we clamped onto a good story and refused to let go. Admittedly, most good reporters are adrenalin junkies. That's what makes them a lot like police officers and fire fighters.
Off blog, I've been exchanging messages with a former colleague, a photographer, about all the nasty and depressing things we witnessed in our careers. Bodies, wounds, tangled metal, mutilated lives and destroyed homes.
After nearly 18 months off the job, I have decompressed, others are in the process of decompressing. Where police officers, fire fighters and medical responders get counseling help or debriefings provided by enlightened companies, reporters who experience some of the same stress from dealing with tragedy get zip, zero, nada from their employers.
There were a few times in my career that I went to my editor (a good one, no longer employed) and told her I need a few days or weeks off from dealing with the endless string of deaths and injuries and she would take me off the death rotation. As a former police reporter herself, she got it.
Editors who rarely, if ever, dealt with the dead, dying or their families, thought nothing of asking reporters to do that very stressful and difficult work with no concern for what it was doing to their psyche. They were too busy worrying about whether desks were too messy to worry about what was going on with the mental well being of their employees.
At the same time that fewer reporters are available to do the difficult work they have to do, they are also dealing with reduced salary and benefits. A combination surely designed to increase unhealthy stress for editorial employees.
One of the things we could always fall back on was our friends in the newsroom. We could laugh together and grieve together, but with the wholesale layoffs and buyouts those support systems are largely gone.
Over the years, we exchanged tacky souvenirs from trips taken. We always looked for a cheap trinket on our trips to bring home and share with our friends in the newsroom. I still have my refrigerator magnets, Eifel Tower pencil sharpener, and miniature Roman Colisseum in my box of stuff I took off my desk during my last week. At Christmas we exchanged small gifts in groups.
During my time at the Oakland Press, I started a collection of snow globes that came, thanks to my colleagues, from all over the world. I have a box of more than 100 of them in my attic, most now without water. People loved that collection, but it eventually had to be taken home, an edict of the "clean-up-the-newsroom" crowd.
At the Flint Journal, there used to be a "ghoul pool" in which some reporters (I never participated) bet on which celebrities would die in the coming year. Sure it was ghoulish, but it was a release from the pressure and sadness we faced daily.
There were also betting pools on the Academy Awards and the NCAA Basketball Tournament. I also never participated in these, because technically they are illegal and I didn't want to be in a position where I might have to write a story about a gambling issue outside the paper while violating the same law inside it.
The annual "Bounce the Chicken Day" celebration, which included foods specifically related to chickens and eggs started when a goofy press photo of a rubber chicken being bounced up and down on a blanket made it to Page 1. Every year after that, on the same date, there would be a chicked to be found somewhere on Page 1 and a huge banquet of chicken and egg related food in the newsroom. It was great fun and it too was a release from the seriousness of what we did.
One of my favorite copy editors (although she will find that a surprise) started an annual pool and contest to pick the winner on American Idol. She made up a stage, complete with American Idol logo, and photos of the contestants on sticks that were eliminated each week with the vote.
The stage included a desk with the three famous Idol judges as well.
We looked out for each other. My buddy Kim, the one whose life I ruined by hiring him as a reporter at The State News back in 1978, asked an intern to bring me and a photographer a cup of coffee during an long running armed stand off in north Flint.
The intern, a woman, bristled at the suggestion that she should be an "errand girl" for two men just because we had been outside in below zero temperatures for more than four hours. Kim explained to her that reporters look out for each other and if he hadn't been busy on rewrite, he would have brought it to us.
In the end she didn't like it, but she dropped off our coffee. Maybe later in her career she figured out what Kim was saying. There were many times that I took coffee or relieved a reporter on a crime scene so they could get out of the cold or get a meal. It's just what we did for each other.
Heck, the bosses would cringe if they had known it at the time, but we often bought and delivered coffee to the cops and fire fighters who were stuck out in the cold with us. It was just a human thing to do. Didn't hurt when it came time to get the story either.
Once, when we had an intern that was pretty full of himself, we organized a "hat" day. The intern, thinking he looked cool, was wearing a snap brim fedora everyday like he was some character out of a 1930s "Front Page" flick.
So we all got together and agreed to wear different kinds of hats so when he arrived at the office he might get the hint. We had people wearing football and hockey helmets, every manner of ball cap, crowns, newsprint hats, stocking caps, cowboy hats (me). When he walked in the room, he noticed the array of hats, smiled and asked, "is this about me?"
We all got a good laugh from it and the young man didn't take himself quite so seriously after that. A newsroom that isn't fun, isn't really a good newsroom.
Tomorrow: A word about sources.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Courtroom fights are becoming a habit
For the second time in less than a month, a fight broke out Monday in a Genesee County courtroom. It appears the only camera on hand belonged to ABC's affiliate, WJRT-TV, Channel 12. You can see the report and video here.
MLive has a story here.
MLive has a story here.
I'm now officially older than dirt
Back in my police days, we used to find any excuse to have a little fun off duty. To make me really feel old current Atherton (California) Police Chief Glenn Nielsen, who started out as a police explorer scout when I worked there in the 1970s (1972-1977), sent along some photos saved by another former scout and later police officer Ron Levine.The pitcher is me. We had a picnic and were playing softball at the old Sacred Heart campus (we believe) in Atherton.
Tom Gantert's post finally up at AnnArbor.com
Another apology from the AnnArbor.com Content Czar as it relates to the Tom Gantert post which we posted here a couple days ago.
If this keeps up, they might want to rename the site "Imsorry.com." There actually is such a site and it seems to be exactly what it says.
Here's more over at Arborupdate.
If this keeps up, they might want to rename the site "Imsorry.com." There actually is such a site and it seems to be exactly what it says.
Here's more over at Arborupdate.
Letter typos bring an AnnArbor.com apology
Haven't seen the letter, so don't know how bad it was, but if the Content Czar's response to a post is any indication it must have been a bad one.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Second Internet start-up newspaper in Denver
Ex-staffers of the Rocky Mountain News are trying again to fire up an online newspaper, this time hopefully to make money.
What he said
Reflections of a Newsosaur expresses again what I tried to briefly express in the obituary to my father-in-law.
Michael Jackson was a great entertainer, but he was a flawed and pitiful person. A month before he died some of the same people who are now idolizing him were making jokes and ridiculing him.
Michael Jackson was a great entertainer, but he was a flawed and pitiful person. A month before he died some of the same people who are now idolizing him were making jokes and ridiculing him.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Tom Gantert posts about citizen journalists
A sometime commenter Tom Gantert (I appreciate that he uses his own name) has offered a great reflection on a previous post on citizen journalists. Apparently Tom left the comment on the AnnArbor.com site a couple days ago, but it has apparently been lost because it has not been posted.
I tried to copy and paste it here, but I'm in Buffalo and something isn't working correctly so here's the link to the previous post and Tom's response is with the comments. There are other good comments as well.
Here's the AnnArbor.com post it refers to.
I tried to copy and paste it here, but I'm in Buffalo and something isn't working correctly so here's the link to the previous post and Tom's response is with the comments. There are other good comments as well.
Here's the AnnArbor.com post it refers to.
Things not to buy at the $1 store
My sister, who is our family's version of Warren Buffet, still likes to shop at the $1 store (mostly for my Christmas and birthday presents). Just kidding, Pam.
Anyway, she lives in West Virginia and recently told me that she was in her favorite $1 store where they were selling pregnancy testing kits for $1. She wondered out loud if anyone would trust a $1 store product for such an important test.
Then she noticed that the store clerk was quite pregnant. She thought it was quite funny.
What product would you never buy at the $1 store even if it was a great deal?
Anyway, she lives in West Virginia and recently told me that she was in her favorite $1 store where they were selling pregnancy testing kits for $1. She wondered out loud if anyone would trust a $1 store product for such an important test.
Then she noticed that the store clerk was quite pregnant. She thought it was quite funny.
What product would you never buy at the $1 store even if it was a great deal?
Slate.com: "Buy One Anyway" a campaign to save newspapers
Thanks to The Daily Derelict and Slate.com this little gem may brighten your day, or not. It's brutal, but great satire.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
DetroitMakeItHere.com: Citizen journalism
Here's the latest installment of Elizabeth Voss' series on the "new" media. This one is focused on the citizen journalists (read free or almost free writers) now working at The Oakland Press.
She used a quote or two from me at the end.
She used a quote or two from me at the end.
Timing bad for Steve McNair restaurant feature
A reader sent along the following link with the unfortunate experience of a newspaper that distributed a pre-printed supplement with an interview with quarterback Steve McNair who was shot and killed on Saturday.
Check it out.
Check it out.
Another buried Page 1 story
I've been trying to lay off the Flint Journal. Today, however, is an example of why the new organization of the Bay City-Saginaw-Flint alignment is faltering.
Earlier this week, at a time when the Flint Journal was not publishing, the reporters at the Journal initially broke the story of the involvement of the Shiawassee County prosecutor in a drunk driving crash.
Then the following day there was a post that simply linked to television news coverage of the event, which I found odd because the Journal had broken the story.
So today I was waiting to read more about the incident when my dead tree version arrived here at home. Let's be serious, the potential arrest of the elected county prosecutor in a drunk driving accident is big news. I naturally looked at the front page expecting to see the story there.
Nope.
So I turned to Page 2 and 3. Nope, again.
Now I'm getting curious. So I keep digging through the paper and finally find the story on page A-9. The old reporters' saying at the Flint Journal that you never know where you'll find a front page story was never truer than today.
I simply can't fathom the news judgment that doesn't see this as a major story, worthy of front page or at least Page 3 coverage.
It could be that the copy editor laying out the page was confused about the charge because the headline on the story said: "Alochol supsected in prosecutor's crash." Maybe the editor thought alochol was different than alcohol.
Earlier this week, at a time when the Flint Journal was not publishing, the reporters at the Journal initially broke the story of the involvement of the Shiawassee County prosecutor in a drunk driving crash.
Then the following day there was a post that simply linked to television news coverage of the event, which I found odd because the Journal had broken the story.
So today I was waiting to read more about the incident when my dead tree version arrived here at home. Let's be serious, the potential arrest of the elected county prosecutor in a drunk driving accident is big news. I naturally looked at the front page expecting to see the story there.
Nope.
So I turned to Page 2 and 3. Nope, again.
Now I'm getting curious. So I keep digging through the paper and finally find the story on page A-9. The old reporters' saying at the Flint Journal that you never know where you'll find a front page story was never truer than today.
I simply can't fathom the news judgment that doesn't see this as a major story, worthy of front page or at least Page 3 coverage.
It could be that the copy editor laying out the page was confused about the charge because the headline on the story said: "Alochol supsected in prosecutor's crash." Maybe the editor thought alochol was different than alcohol.
Another Advance publication bites the dust, merges with AnnArbor.com
An announcement was made today to Ann Arbor News employees that the Michigan Business Review will be folded into the operations at AnnArbor.com.
The release published today on MLive contains the usual Advance/Booth corporate speak that insists it was a successful publication, BUT........
Here's the AnnArbor.com version.
The release published today on MLive contains the usual Advance/Booth corporate speak that insists it was a successful publication, BUT........
Here's the AnnArbor.com version.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
John R. "Red" Uleskey, 1924-2009
John R. “Red” Uleskey, a native of South Buffalo, NY, died peacefully Tuesday morning in his own bedroom at the home he and his wife lived in for 55 years. Red was my wife’s father and was one of an estimated 1,000 World War II veterans who died yesterday.Another 1,000 will die today, and tomorrow and everyday for a long time until they are all gone.
Unlike a recent big name entertainer, who did not fight for his country, “Red” and most of the others will die in relative anonymity and will pay a newspaper somewhere to run a
short announcement that their life on earth has ended. The card carrying members of Tom Brokaw’s “Greatest Generation” barely rate a passing mention anymore.Like many men and women of his era, Red left high school before graduation to fight for his country. It says a lot about our country that we honor those without honor and neglect those who have truly earned our respect and admiration. But enough about that let me tell you just a little that I know about “Red.”
(Photos: Red and Red and his "girls").
I came late to Red, I married his eldest daughter Joan in 1999, but first met him in 1996 when Joan and I started dating. He was born June 21, 1924 in Buffalo. He married the love of his life, Joan Burke, on June 26, 1948. I’ll do the math. He was 85 and he and Joan just celebrated their 61st wedding anniversary. My wife, also Joan, was born March 31, 1949, I’ll let you do that math. Never mind, it was nine months, almost to the day of their wedding.
Last weekend, in between the times my wife and I were turning him in bed, or wetting his lips as he moved slowly, but peacefully, toward his death, I sat down to write his obituary for the newspaper. It was the least I thought I could do.
When we met with the funeral director Tuesday afternoon, who just happens to be “Red’s” nephew, Patrick Cannan, he informed me that Red already wrote his own, 16 years ago. Unlike the flowery, information packed obituary that I had written it was short, sweet and to the point. We updated a few survivors, but left it as he wrote it.
In his obituary, Red didn’t feel the need to mention that as a member of an artillery company in the U.S. Army’s 75th Division, he arrived in Europe just before Christmas in 1944 where he and his buddies were pushed into action in the Battle of the Bulge. Talk about your trial by fire.
After defeating the Germans in the Battle of the Bulge, Red and the 75th, followed the huns across the Rhine River into Germany until the war ended. But none of this you would have known reading Red’s obit. He only mentioned his life membership in the local American Legion Post and VFW organization.
He served on the color guards for both those organizations, which was also not mentioned.
Also missing in his obituary was his career as a fireman and later engineer on the South Buffalo Railway working odd hours and weekends to support his family.
Oh how Red loved his family. He raised three daughters and they gave him two grandsons and two granddaughters, who he adored. Three years ago his grandson John, my stepson, and his wife, Nicole, gave Red and Joan a great-granddaughter, Addisen. Red didn’t need fancy trips to Europe, cruises or a second home in Florida. His joy came from being with family.
They have all been with him in the last weeks of his life. Everyone had a chance to tell him what he meant to them and say good-bye. Even little Addisen put on the latex gloves that hospice left behind and told us, "I'll check on great grandpa."
Getting the family together was always a priority for the Uleskeys.
When it was hard to get them all to Buffalo and a little cramped in the 1,000-square foot home that he and Joan purchased in the early 1950s, he financed frequent reunions (three or four times a year) in the 1990s and 2000s at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Pittsburgh, which was roughly half way for everyone.
In addition to letting him be with his daughters and grandchildren, it was Red’s intention that the cousins become closer and to give them the close family ties that he didn’t always have as a child.
There were 25 of these “Pittsburghers,” as we called them. Red's plan worked, my stepdaughter, Elin, and Jessica, daughter of Red’s daughter, Diane, are close friends to this day. Grandson Shaun inherited Red’s ability to fix, repair and make a buck.
The three brothers-in-law were always included and loved, but we knew that our place was a secondary one to his “girls.”
Other than his trips to Pittsburgh, the only other major trips he and Joan took were to annual reunion conventions of the 75th Division. A few times he included us in those plans, the most recent a weekend reunion in Chicago.
During one convention in Missouri, he penned a comment in the guest book at the Truman Library. “You saved my life.” That comment referred to plans for the 75th Division to be transferred to the Pacific Theater until Truman authorized the dropping of the Atomic bomb on Japan.
One of his most memorable moments was when his daughter Diane and son-in-law Denny took him into Washington, D.C. to be present at the dedication of the World War II Memorial. A military person rolled him down front in his wheelchair to hear former senator and presidential candidate Bob Dole speak.
In his obituary, Red didn’t mention that he was a kind and gentle man who rarely raised his voice, but was fiercely defensive of his family.
He bought his cars new and then meticulously maintained them, including a few that he took apart to undercoat as soon as he purchased them to protect them from the fierce Buffalo winters.
When something needed fixing at the Uleskey house, Red didn’t run to Home Depot, he climbed into his basement and found the right screw, tool or board safely stored away there. Why buy something new when something old in the basement could do the same thing, or be made into something that would do the same thing.
The obituary he wrote also didn’t mention that he studied and became an artist, that he took lessons to learn how to play the organ and how conflicted he was for a time that he couldn’t decide which of the two he liked better. His grandson, John, my stepson, was the one who apparently inherited those artistic genes.
Until recently, he made daily entries into a journal that kept track of great events, the birth of a grandchild, and minor events, like what he and Joan had for dinner at a local gin joint. Some of his sayings would rival that of any great philosopher.
Red never wanted to disappoint and when his youngest daughter, Pat, signed him up for a class to complete a GED without his knowledge, he began attending after the GED instructor called him and asked him why he missed the first class. He finished with flying colors.
Not that education wasn’t important to Red, he sent two of his daughters through college and taught the other how to read when she struggled at school with the skill. He did crossword puzzles and loved the Sunday talk shows, especially Meet the Press with Tim Russert, a Buffalo native of whom Red, as well as the whole community, were justifiable proud.
Red was typically Buffalo, down-to-earth and real. A lifelong “family values” Democrat, Red was a strong union man who worked construction jobs during labor disputes on the railroad to make sure his family was provided for. He had no patience for sloth.
Between him and his wife, they knew every good restaurant in Buffalo and if they didn’t take you there, it probably wasn’t worth going to. They knew who had the best Beef on Weck (a Buffalo roast beef sandwich on a salt-covered roll) or fish fry.
Red liked his beer cold, his home warm and his soup “extremely hot." He was most happy if he was surrounded by his family and was holding a “Sammy,” a Samuel Adams beer in his hand.
Another thing Red neglected to mention was his skill as a gardener. He raised tomatoes, peppers and a number of other wonderful produce in his backyard garden in West Seneca. He poured his own concrete driveway and built his one-car garage after he and Joan purchased the house.
“It cost $500,” he told me recently. “And Joan helped.”
To save the plastic tile in the single bathroom of the house, Red plumbed and added a basement shower that we in the family affectionately call “Camp Uleskey.” Until last year, no one ever used the upstairs shower.
He was also happy sitting in his “shack” a converted first-floor bedroom that included his Ham radio equipment. When he couldn’t get a good signal he was content to listen to the time signal. KB2FME has now signed off forever.
The attic he turned into a bedroom for his two oldest girls and now serves as the guest room.
Without a formal college education, Red made smart investments and while he lived well below his means, he was generous when it came to his family. Red didn’t think up the phrase “Waste not, want now,” but he certainly brought it to a new level.
A quick wit and a thoughtful mind never failed to inspire a laugh or a good discussion. Red never said much, but when he spoke we all listened. And learned.
Red’s quick wit and kind demeanor endured him to all who knew and loved him. No wife had a better husband, no children had a better father and no grandchildren had a better grandpa.
When his wife had a stroke in April, he insisted on visiting her, sometimes three times a day in the hospital, which took a tremendous toll on his body, which was already struggling with a debilitating Parkinson’s related progressive disease.
In recent weeks, he could no longer go and visit her, but they talked on the phone and last weekend met for the last time face to face in his bedroom on a quick visit from the nursing home.
He sent flowers to her on their anniversary. The two of them demonstrated the real meanings of the vows, "to love and honor ... for better or worse … in sickness and in health."
But in the end, we decided to go with Red’s own obituary version of his life. Simple and to the point, just the way he wanted it and wrote it.
During my years of reporting I sometimes visited people in hospice care, but I had no idea how wonderful service this is. Hospice Buffalo, which helped Red during his last 13 days of life, were incredible. The average stay in hospice, we were told, was 13 days exactly what Red did.
They made it possible to honor his wish that he die at home. We are asking our friends who wish, in lieu of flowers, to make a donation to Hospice Buffalo, 225 Como Park Boulevard, Cheektowaga, NY 14227, in Red’s name.
I could go on for a long time, but Red would already be upset that I wrote all this. Forgive me Red, I just couldn’t help myself. Rest in peace. Thanks for your life and your sacrifice to your country.
AnnArbor.com suggests tutorials for "citizen" journalism
The latest post on AnnArbor.com may signal what they will rely on for the future.
Another blog newspaper idea bites the dust
Want to lose money? Try inventing the new bridge from paper to Internet. Here's a guy who tried and is now broke.
Pssst. The money has been, and despite all the Internet gurus claiming otherwise, remains in the print product.
Pssst. The money has been, and despite all the Internet gurus claiming otherwise, remains in the print product.
Back and forth to Buffalo
For those who have followed our trips back and forth to Buffalo during the past two years, my wife's father died peacefully at home Tuesday, July 7, while we were at the house with him. His entire family had been at the house over the Fourth of July weekend to celebrate his 85th birthday (June 21) and Red and Joan's 61st wedding anniversary June 26.
He had gone into home hospice (Buffalo Hospice - one of the greatest non-profit groups I have ever dealt with) just 13 days before. I'll have more to say about John "Red" Uleskey later today, but thanks to all who have prayed and encouraged us over these past several years.
Now more of our attention turns to Red's wife, Joan, who continues her rehabilitation from a major stroke in April.
He had gone into home hospice (Buffalo Hospice - one of the greatest non-profit groups I have ever dealt with) just 13 days before. I'll have more to say about John "Red" Uleskey later today, but thanks to all who have prayed and encouraged us over these past several years.
Now more of our attention turns to Red's wife, Joan, who continues her rehabilitation from a major stroke in April.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Dallas Cowboys honor boy with cancer
If this doesn't put things in some perspective, I don't think anything will. This was very touching.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Sports writer David Mayo writes about conviction
Grand Rapids Press sports writer chimed in today about his marijuana conviction and his great fortune in getting his old job back.
In a time when newspapers are trimming staff and cutting costs, for a guy to get his job back after being convicted of a drug felony is pretty much a miracle.
I do not know David Mayo and believe in second chances and forgiveness, but I've known other employees who have lost jobs at Booth for far less transgressions than this.
In a time when newspapers are trimming staff and cutting costs, for a guy to get his job back after being convicted of a drug felony is pretty much a miracle.
I do not know David Mayo and believe in second chances and forgiveness, but I've known other employees who have lost jobs at Booth for far less transgressions than this.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Happy Fourth of July
I was up early this morning and just decided to re-read the Declaration of Independence. It's short and to the point, just like a good newspaper article. If you have a few minutes today before the family and friends arrive and the hot dogs and hamburgers are on the grill you might want to read it again too. There's a complete copy here.
Happy 4th!
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Crain's Bill Shea has pointed give-and-take with another journalist
Found this column by Crain's blogger Bill Shea on some Michigan Citizen charges against the Detroit Free Press and its coverage of soon-to-be former Detroit Councilperson Monica Conyers.
The story is one thing, but the comments back and forth between Bill and the subject of his story is also good reading.
The story is one thing, but the comments back and forth between Bill and the subject of his story is also good reading.
Cardboard boxes: The new newsroom furniture
The Washington Post's John Kelly has an interesting column on the exodus of many of his co-workers to a buyout at the WaPo.
If you are not a registered member of the WaPo's online community, you will likely have to sign up. Easy and free.
If you are not a registered member of the WaPo's online community, you will likely have to sign up. Easy and free.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Return of GR sportswriter draws fire, applause
Grand Rapids Press sports writer David Mayo, now a convicted felon for a marijuana cultivation is getting his old job back at the Press. This on the same day many of his fellow employees are on the way out.
Apparently police found more than 200 marijuana plants growing at the Mayo home, but he pleaded to a lesser crime. The 200 plants were for "personal use." That's a lot of personal use.
Mayo seems to be drawing as much ire over his lawyer's comment about his "humiliating" experience as a waiter as his drug use. Many of the long thread of comments are pretty brutal.
Some of the commenters appear to be Booth employees (anonymously) poking fun at the company's "zero tolerance" drug policy.
For my part, I believe everyone deserves a second chance, but it does raise some questions about how serious Booth is over its employee drug policy.
Apparently police found more than 200 marijuana plants growing at the Mayo home, but he pleaded to a lesser crime. The 200 plants were for "personal use." That's a lot of personal use.
Mayo seems to be drawing as much ire over his lawyer's comment about his "humiliating" experience as a waiter as his drug use. Many of the long thread of comments are pretty brutal.
Some of the commenters appear to be Booth employees (anonymously) poking fun at the company's "zero tolerance" drug policy.
For my part, I believe everyone deserves a second chance, but it does raise some questions about how serious Booth is over its employee drug policy.
AnnArbor.com presents at Ignite Ann Arbor
Here are the "highlights" of the AnnArbor.com presentation at the Ignite (whatever the heck that is) last night. I guess you get five minutes and a few slides (which I couldn't or didn't see on the video) to tell your exciting story.
Why you would need to boil down highlights from a five-minute presentation (I would assume a five-minute presentation would be all highlights) I have no idea. Moral of the story: Will write for potatoes. (You have to watch to get it.)
Why you would need to boil down highlights from a five-minute presentation (I would assume a five-minute presentation would be all highlights) I have no idea. Moral of the story: Will write for potatoes. (You have to watch to get it.)
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Politics as usual here in New York
With our frequent trips to Buffalo we are as in touch with New York politics as we are with Michigan politics.
Early last month there was a sudden shift in the control of the State senate when two Democrats switched allegiances and went over to the Republican side to change the control of the Senate.
For a month now, nothing has gotten done as neither side is now able to get a quorom and because the former Democrat governor stepped down after his "Appalachian Trail" incident with a paid hooker there is no lieutenant governor to break the tie.
Important legislation is on hold and will expire in just a few days, leaving cities across the state without money for projects that would bring badly needed jobs to this state.
The new governor, Paterson (who had to admit a number of his own dalliances after he ascended to the office), has pleaded with his fellow Democrats to find a way to share power and get things done, but they are in no mood to compromise and today tried to hold a vote by using a blocked hallway that forced one Republican to cut through the Senate floor.
When the Republican cut through the chamber on a short cut back to his office, the Democrats declared a quorom, hastily passed a bunch of legislation, but the governor said he was not going to sign the bill because of the shenanigans.
Although they don't want to meet, the Senators are being called into special session everyday by the governor, which they promptly adjourn without doing anything.
Now there is a move by voters and others to cut off the Senators' pay because none of them seem to want to work anyway. It's all very funny and ridiculous at the same time.
Early last month there was a sudden shift in the control of the State senate when two Democrats switched allegiances and went over to the Republican side to change the control of the Senate.
For a month now, nothing has gotten done as neither side is now able to get a quorom and because the former Democrat governor stepped down after his "Appalachian Trail" incident with a paid hooker there is no lieutenant governor to break the tie.
Important legislation is on hold and will expire in just a few days, leaving cities across the state without money for projects that would bring badly needed jobs to this state.
The new governor, Paterson (who had to admit a number of his own dalliances after he ascended to the office), has pleaded with his fellow Democrats to find a way to share power and get things done, but they are in no mood to compromise and today tried to hold a vote by using a blocked hallway that forced one Republican to cut through the Senate floor.
When the Republican cut through the chamber on a short cut back to his office, the Democrats declared a quorom, hastily passed a bunch of legislation, but the governor said he was not going to sign the bill because of the shenanigans.
Although they don't want to meet, the Senators are being called into special session everyday by the governor, which they promptly adjourn without doing anything.
Now there is a move by voters and others to cut off the Senators' pay because none of them seem to want to work anyway. It's all very funny and ridiculous at the same time.
Made in China: Riiiiight!
Let's keep handing over our manufacturing and money to China. They do so well after all. For example this little apartment complex project. Here's the Reuters story and photo.
The People's Paradise is not so concerned with the details.
How confident will the residents of the nearby duplicate buildings feel?
The People's Paradise is not so concerned with the details.
How confident will the residents of the nearby duplicate buildings feel?
Story on school district includes suspect editing
I'm not one who should necessarily point out the typos of another, although the readers here are 'helpful' in pointing them out, but because of a comment on a story posted on the Flint Journal Mlive site it may be instructive of the lack of editing of stories before they go online.
Here's the paragraph (in case it gets fixed later):
"It said the districted needed to better use technology in the classroom and do a better intregrate new students in the cirriculum."
If my math is any good at all that's three misspellings in one sentence. I should acknowledge that I didn't find this on my own, it was sent to me offline to my e-mail.
Here's the paragraph (in case it gets fixed later):
"It said the districted needed to better use technology in the classroom and do a better intregrate new students in the cirriculum."
If my math is any good at all that's three misspellings in one sentence. I should acknowledge that I didn't find this on my own, it was sent to me offline to my e-mail.
MLive: Putting the stale into stale news
If you go to the Flint Journal's MLive opinion page you will see a column of photos and column links down the right side.
The Opinion blogs are pretty much up to date and the community newspapers columns are relatively fresh, but if you click on any of the photos in columnists' column you will find they are anywhere from five weeks to seven months old.
Heck, some of the people listed there don't even work for the Journal anymore. One of the columns has to do with encouraging voters to get more information on candidates before the early May City election.
The sell by date of a column should be close to that of a carton of milk. What did they do with the former Internet team?
The Opinion blogs are pretty much up to date and the community newspapers columns are relatively fresh, but if you click on any of the photos in columnists' column you will find they are anywhere from five weeks to seven months old.
Heck, some of the people listed there don't even work for the Journal anymore. One of the columns has to do with encouraging voters to get more information on candidates before the early May City election.
The sell by date of a column should be close to that of a carton of milk. What did they do with the former Internet team?
Monday, June 29, 2009
Flushing golfer Jeff Roth is following me, or maybe vice versa
As I mentioned before, I hate playing golf, but like watching and following it.
I previously wrote about Flushing golfer Jeff Roth who was not getting much attention at a recent Michigan tournament from his hometown newspaper.
So little did I know that this week here in New York, Jeff Roth started out a PGA Champions Tour event near the top of the leaderboard at the Dick's Sporting Goods Open tournament. He shot a 6-under par, 66, during the first round of the tournament.
By Sunday he slipped to being tied for 31st with a 7-under par finish. Don't believe this was mentioned at the Flint Journal. I couldn't find it anyway. Here's the complete leaderboard.
I previously wrote about Flushing golfer Jeff Roth who was not getting much attention at a recent Michigan tournament from his hometown newspaper.
So little did I know that this week here in New York, Jeff Roth started out a PGA Champions Tour event near the top of the leaderboard at the Dick's Sporting Goods Open tournament. He shot a 6-under par, 66, during the first round of the tournament.
By Sunday he slipped to being tied for 31st with a 7-under par finish. Don't believe this was mentioned at the Flint Journal. I couldn't find it anyway. Here's the complete leaderboard.
Blogging leader picked for AnnArbor.com
Who says you can't make a living blogging? The AnnArbor.com just announced the selection of a blogging leader. Edward Vielmetti is a sometime commenter here. He has always been positive and respectful here so we congratulate him on his new job.
While the article does not say how much a blogging leader will be paid, it might be a nice touch if Edward would tell us so we would have some idea what our future would hold should we decide to become a full time blogging leader.
After all, there's a lot of unemployed writers out there trying to figure out how to cash in on this Internet deal.
While the article does not say how much a blogging leader will be paid, it might be a nice touch if Edward would tell us so we would have some idea what our future would hold should we decide to become a full time blogging leader.
After all, there's a lot of unemployed writers out there trying to figure out how to cash in on this Internet deal.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Thought for the day
Hint for husbands: From now on it will not be a good idea to tell your wife you are going for a 5-day walk on the Appalachian Trail. (Even if you really were).
Could be trouble.
Update (9:25 p.m.) After I posted this someone sent me this column, which I promise you I did not see before I left my "Thought for the Day," otherwise I would have credited it.
Could be trouble.
Update (9:25 p.m.) After I posted this someone sent me this column, which I promise you I did not see before I left my "Thought for the Day," otherwise I would have credited it.
Another journalism prize winner receives honor as he makes his way out the door
A long time Grand Rapids columnist wins prestigious award as he takes the money and runs. And that is NOT a criticism of the writer as he joins a large number of us who have bailed with the buyout.
Another celebrity down
Billy Mays, the 500-horse power voice and television pitchman was found dead today.
For infomercial fans, this is right up there with Michael Jackson. I'm sure my stepdaughter, who loves infomercials is in mourning.
For infomercial fans, this is right up there with Michael Jackson. I'm sure my stepdaughter, who loves infomercials is in mourning.
A courtroom brawl worth posting.
There was an interesting story on the Flint Journal MLive site about a murder suspect who was attacked in court by the family of the victim during a hearing this week. The family was outraged when the defendant entered court with a big smile on his face for the hearing. All of this was captured on courtroom security video. A 3-minute version with sound (the melee starts about a minute or so into the video) is on the MLive site.
The Flint Journal has the entire version here.
(Notice the woman toward the end of the video that is crawling her way to safety across the courtroom floor. What's that about?)
Here's the Youtube version:
The Flint Journal has the entire version here.
(Notice the woman toward the end of the video that is crawling her way to safety across the courtroom floor. What's that about?)
Here's the Youtube version:
The FJ Editor checks in about the changes
The editor of the Flint Journal has checked in with an evaluation of the first month of the "new" Flint Journal. (Maybe they will fix them by the time you read this, but what are those wierd symbols that frequently pop up in MLive copy? They have had that issue since the beginning, you would think they could have worked that annoying glitch out by now.)
It's long on feel good and short on numbers. If a reporter wrote this story the editor would have them go back and ask a few questions.
How many subscribers did you gain or lose in this change?
How's the advertising revenue holding up with the change?
How's that transition to online advertising working to keep the wolf away from the door?
What have the people who have called to cancel their subscriptions been saying?
Where are all those great online videos we used to hear about for Mlive?
That would be a good start to actually make this column informative. As the old editor used to end every column of his: Let me know what you think.
It's long on feel good and short on numbers. If a reporter wrote this story the editor would have them go back and ask a few questions.
How many subscribers did you gain or lose in this change?
How's the advertising revenue holding up with the change?
How's that transition to online advertising working to keep the wolf away from the door?
What have the people who have called to cancel their subscriptions been saying?
Where are all those great online videos we used to hear about for Mlive?
That would be a good start to actually make this column informative. As the old editor used to end every column of his: Let me know what you think.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Some lenders balk at JRC bankruptcy plan
From the blog Fading to Black: Large bonuses and a gift fund for some suppliers and not others have some debtors complaining about a proposed bankruptcy settlement for Journal Register Co.
Part of the Pontiac Police Michael Jackson photo
I've looked everywhere for the photo and video of Michael Jackson and the Pontiac Police Department. Finally found this small portion of the photo. The part with my former wife in it has been cropped. She would have been to MJ's right, I believe one or two officers over.Intere
stingly, the photo does include a photo (second row middle) of former Pontiac Police Lt. Ray Hawks, who later became police chief in Capac and who was badly wounded in a shooting a year or so ago.
stingly, the photo does include a photo (second row middle) of former Pontiac Police Lt. Ray Hawks, who later became police chief in Capac and who was badly wounded in a shooting a year or so ago.Update: July 8, 2009: My former wife has forwarded me the Life magazine photo that includes her (second to Michael's right and second to the left as you view the photos. She told me she still has the sunglasses she and the other officers received for doing the photo.)
Beginning of a new series on Detroit journalism
The first of a five-part series on journalism in the Detroit Metropolitan Area appeared Thursday in a Crain's publication or section called "Detroit Make It Here."
I was interviewed back in April for this series, but don't know if, or when, my comments will appear. It looks like the series is scheduled for every Thursday for the next 4-5 weeks.
I was interviewed back in April for this series, but don't know if, or when, my comments will appear. It looks like the series is scheduled for every Thursday for the next 4-5 weeks.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Hey, one more Michael Jackson connection of mine
The Flint Journal just posted a story that was another Michael Jackson related story I covered way, long ago. I remember this story because a source tipped me off to it and I spent some time out at the old State Police Post (Corunna Road and I-75) covering the theft of a Michael Jackson glove.
Here's the current story on the Flint Journal site.
As it has come back to me, I did the initial story, but I believe it was the day shift cop reporter at the time, Paul, who got the interview with the "thief." (Update - 8:55 p.m.: A commenter on the Flint Journal story said the young man who stole the glove has been dead for 10 years.)
This was one of those bizarre stories that I just loved to write. Thank you Flint Journal for reminding me of that old story. I had long forgotten it.
Here's the current story on the Flint Journal site.
As it has come back to me, I did the initial story, but I believe it was the day shift cop reporter at the time, Paul, who got the interview with the "thief." (Update - 8:55 p.m.: A commenter on the Flint Journal story said the young man who stole the glove has been dead for 10 years.)
This was one of those bizarre stories that I just loved to write. Thank you Flint Journal for reminding me of that old story. I had long forgotten it.
A crass look at the news cycle
One of the things that always fascinated me as a reporter and member of the media was the news cycle.
Things can turn on a dime. It's days like today that I remember in the global news sense.
Editors and producers planning the 6 p.m. newscasts probably spent all day planning the big splash story of the day: Gov. Sanford of South Carolina admits affair heads to the beach with his family.
You have to know that reporters had been scrambled all over South Carolina and Argentina putting together huge coverage of the scandal. Secondarily, you have the deaths of Farrah Fawcett and Ed McMahon. In the parlance of the news business, a great news day.
Then just minutes before the 6 p.m. news, Michael Jackson is stricken with a heart attack and dies right on deadline for the shows.
Scrap all but a 2-minute catch up segment at the end of the NBC news broadcast and fill the first 15 minutes with Michael Jackson news. A brief snippet on Farrah Fawcett and just tad, if anything, on Ed McMahon.
It's enough to make a guy miss the news business.
Things can turn on a dime. It's days like today that I remember in the global news sense.
Editors and producers planning the 6 p.m. newscasts probably spent all day planning the big splash story of the day: Gov. Sanford of South Carolina admits affair heads to the beach with his family.
You have to know that reporters had been scrambled all over South Carolina and Argentina putting together huge coverage of the scandal. Secondarily, you have the deaths of Farrah Fawcett and Ed McMahon. In the parlance of the news business, a great news day.
Then just minutes before the 6 p.m. news, Michael Jackson is stricken with a heart attack and dies right on deadline for the shows.
Scrap all but a 2-minute catch up segment at the end of the NBC news broadcast and fill the first 15 minutes with Michael Jackson news. A brief snippet on Farrah Fawcett and just tad, if anything, on Ed McMahon.
It's enough to make a guy miss the news business.
Michael Jackson: Gone at 50
As I blogged about previously, one of my assignments at the Oakland Press was handling part of the coverage for Michael Jackson's "Thriller" tour in the 1980s.
It would be hard to overestimate the cultural phenomenon that the concert was at the time.
I remember going to the Silverdome almost every day for several days as they assembled this behemoth of a set on the floor of the stadium.
My second wife, a Pontiac police officer, had her picture taken with Michael along with a number of police officers during a shoot of a clip of Michael and the officers for an MTV video. I don't remember what song it was for, but it was a famous clip of Michael being escorted by dozens of police officers with sunglasses down a flight of stairs.
After the tour left town there was the bizarre news conference in Michael's Troy (I think it was Troy) hotel room and the manager pointing out a glob of hair gel on the wall, supposedly belonging to the pop star.
I remember watching Michael as a little kid with the Jackson Five and then, like the rest of us, watched as his life turned into a train wreck. Hard to say I'm stunned by the news, but terribly sad nonetheless.
Doesn't help that it happened so close to the death of Farrah Fawcett and Ed McMahon, two other favorites from the past.
We always used to say in the newsroom that celebrity deaths came in threes, but this sure is an example of that old saw.
It would be hard to overestimate the cultural phenomenon that the concert was at the time.
I remember going to the Silverdome almost every day for several days as they assembled this behemoth of a set on the floor of the stadium.
My second wife, a Pontiac police officer, had her picture taken with Michael along with a number of police officers during a shoot of a clip of Michael and the officers for an MTV video. I don't remember what song it was for, but it was a famous clip of Michael being escorted by dozens of police officers with sunglasses down a flight of stairs.
After the tour left town there was the bizarre news conference in Michael's Troy (I think it was Troy) hotel room and the manager pointing out a glob of hair gel on the wall, supposedly belonging to the pop star.
I remember watching Michael as a little kid with the Jackson Five and then, like the rest of us, watched as his life turned into a train wreck. Hard to say I'm stunned by the news, but terribly sad nonetheless.
Doesn't help that it happened so close to the death of Farrah Fawcett and Ed McMahon, two other favorites from the past.
We always used to say in the newsroom that celebrity deaths came in threes, but this sure is an example of that old saw.
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